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Please Reply to: Anita Messenger  libertymtn@xxxxxxxxx or ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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I saw a champagne glass competition once at the Oklahoma City Festival of the 
Horse. There must have been 40 horses in that ring (very crowded), and just 
about every breed/size of horse you could think of including gaited breeds and 
Pony Club horses. Two trotters tied for first - a TALL Clydesdale (one of the 
riding kind, not draft kind) and a registered 14.3 hand MORAB mare. The lady 
that owns that mare used to enter these things every chance she got because the 
mare won them all the time. There *are* trotters that are very smooth gaited. 
Many of our Morabs have a good smooth extended trot, and we've had some Morgans 
like that, too.

I won a trotting race one year with a 16 year old Morgan broodmare we owned. A 
yearly trail ride put on by the state Morgan club drew riders from several 
states with all sorts of horses. They charged an entry fee, and had a mowed 80 
acre field. There were a good 20 horses in the lineup. My saddle was borrowed, 
and the stirrups too long so I knew in advance I would have to *sit* this trot 
(my husband entered me - I didn't do that!). If you broke gait, you were out. 
Off we went across that field toward the rest of the riders watching. I could 
hear people shouting, "I'm out!" as horse after horse broke. My mare just 
opened up and flew. I had no trouble sitting her. By the time we were 3/4ths of 
the way to the finish, we were in the lead. When we crossed the finish line, 
there was no one near us. This mare was also packing one of the heaviest riders 
there (me). She is 24 this year, and doing team penning and trail riding in 
Tucson, Arizona with a nice family with kids. She's never worn shoes in her 
life.

About five years ago, our farm started breeding for gaited Morabs using a very 
strongly gaited Morgan stallion who also trots, bred to mostly non-gaited Morab 
mares. So far, the Morab foals are both gaiting and trotting. The oldest are 
now four years old this year. We expect to see them both gaiting and trotting 
as we start to get them going under saddle, and we want to teach them to do 
either on cue. The best of both worlds. :-) We hope to see some of these gaited 
Morabs on the endurance trails some day soon. We think they will prove to be a 
Cadillac on trails. :-)

Anita Messenger
http://libertymtnranch.faithweb.com
http://endurancemorab.8k.com


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